Policy on Paper, Children at Risk

Nobody shall deprive of life under the law,says our constitution(Article 9) but that looks just an article with no more worth.The time has come that no one cares about the law and has own court of justice and mentality.

Few days back, a black day for Pakistan as the one who has no parents and relatives and considers state as a mother has to face death.I am talking about an orphan boy named Waseem Abbas, 15 year old boy living in a shelter house in a housing society Multan was killed by his employee Touqeer Nazir who chased him after Waseem ran from shop and then struck by his car.Waseem was learning electrical work at the shop.

This raised the concerns on the child safety in Pakistan, the institutions are unable to deliver services for the protection of children against child abuse,child labour and violence.

A spokesperson from the Child Protection Bureau issued a statement revealing that the private orphanage where Waseem was staying was completely unregistered. The bureau clarified that state laws dictate children can only be sent to registered public or private institutions for vocational training, and handing a child over to an unrelated, unvetted individual was a violation of legal protocols.

Let me quote here an other incident reflecting child abuse and violence.In the rural areas of Rajanpur district of Punjab, four years old Athena’s life changed when she was assaulted and abducted by the visiting worker.Her dissapearance shooked the community leading to search for her.In the evening,she was found in the ruins of an abandoned mud house.Although she survived through the incident yet it left her with traumas including unable to speak and nighmares.Her parents, Ahmed and Sabrina,

were devastated and overwhelmed, with limited access to legal or psychological support.UNICEF provided support in her recovery with the help of District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) in Rajanpur.

The state should take responsibility of our children by preventive decision-making instead of reactive.

We have rules,policies and regulations which are just on paper nothing delivering on the ground or achieving desirable outcomes.We make policies without evidence informed research and unable to give a mechanism of implementation.If any policy is implemented, then no one from authorities like to check its evaluation and feedback,requiring for improving the quality of a policy.

While the institutions,authorites are present to stop child labour and child abuse still there is no satisfactory development because according to the data and reporting shared by UNICEF Pakistan and UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report,there are estimated 25.1 million children aged 5-16 out of school due to the poverty, child labour and gender discremination. This report reflects the importance of strong implementation and control of child labour rules and policies to let our child educate and be the future of our country despite of facing hurdles and living a miserable life.

Not ending here, The Punjab Child Labour Suvey (PCLS), report released by Labour and Human Resource Department provides the data that about 13.4%  children aged 5-14 are occupied by child labour.  Roughly 21% of child laborers reported workplace abuse, and 15% to 17% experienced extreme fatigue.Punjab is the first province of Pakistan to launch Child Protection Policy in 2025 with the draft containing the provisions of protection against sexual abuse,economic exploitation,child labour and many more.Key departments such as Social Welfare, Health, Education, and Police are involved in the

implementation of the policy, ensuring a multi-sectoral approach to child protection

Although the policy aims to overcome the safety dilemmas of children but faces the implementation gap in many areas of Punjab where the stakeholders are not ready or well-aware to implement the policy on ground and its consequences are disccused above.

UNICEF issued an advocated brief for  Punjab’s Child Protection Policy in January 2026 stating “This milestone for child rights will expand access to child protection services, protect rights and improve service delivery etc. for 56 million children living in Pakistan’s most populous province, following a three-year journey of close engagement, advocacy, and both technical and financial support from UNICEF and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).”

We have seen that the international organizations are also hoping for the end and control of child labour and protection of children.These kinds of acts involving child abuse,child labour and violence not only deprive our children from education but also leaving serious mental and health problems including traumas,extreme fatigue,malnutrtion etc.

Now the real concern is Do we need more programmes and policies or just requirement is the efficiency and effectiveness of existing policies? Yes, we need the better ground level implementation with its evaluation of existing policies because what we have to do for more policies if they have to be on just papers nothing to deliver.

The state institutions should strictly monitor the orphange institutions for their registry with the help of local communities or institutions so that no more child like Waseem face this persecution.Srongly condemn the child labour by punishing the ones who keep children on labour work.All these problems are interconnected like school dopout, child labour and child safety, so the government should encourage parents by providing the facilities to families to stop their children from child labour and send them to school.This is the way to keep save our future,our children from brutal people and child labour.Children with  good education and health and mental peace can break grounds for the progress of Pakistan, so let them do this.

References:

1. Child Protection Policy
2. Geo News
3. UNICEF Advocay Brief
4. Punjab Child Labour Survey Report 2019-20
5. Constitution of Pakistan

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Opinion Desk.